


boys that we knew

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: carry on countdown 2020 [4]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: BAMF Fiona Pitch, Canon Compliant, Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), Gen, POV First Person, Pre-Book 2: Wayward Son
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27756919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: Fiona is caught in a trap on a Coven mission when she's rescued by the last person she expects.
Relationships: past Nicodemus Petty/Fiona Pitch
Series: carry on countdown 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026733
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	boys that we knew

**Author's Note:**

> Carry On Countdown Day 4, NOV 28: Side Characters

Oh, sister, am I in trouble now. I’m sprinting down a corridor and I can hear them hot on my heels over the sound of my laborious breathing. I really need to quit smoking. I’m trying to run faster but my feet are heavy. There’s a reason they don’t advertise Doc Martin’s as a running shoe. I just need to make it out of the building but they’re starting to catch up, and I’ve got nowhere else to go. I might be seeing you again very soon, Nat.

As I’m running I have this sudden, horrible realisation that I don’t want to die. I’ve always lived carelessly, but there might be things to start living for now. I’ve met a man, I have a job, Baz is quite literally sleeping with the enemy so the poor kid needs me now more than ever. I thought I’d rejoice in this moment, where it’s all gonna be over soon, but instead I’m terrified.

Is this how you felt? This hopelessness and fear and grief?

No, of course not. You’ve always been more of a Pitch than I was. Stronger, smarter, and with more to lose. You stood and you fought to the very end. You didn’t run like I am. I’m sorry that I turned into such a coward. If you were here, things would’ve been different, I might not have wasted my life the way I did, angry and wanting to avenge. I might not be dying at the hands of a horde of starved vampires on fucking Coven business.

I can hear one right behind me now, and I don’t know when I started to cry but I am and it’s mortifying. I never cry. This is it, these are my final moments and I’m gonna spend them running for my life, sobbing like a little girl. Oh, sister mine, I hope you can’t see me right now. How ashamed you would be. How utterly appalled this is what a Pitch has become. 

A hand grabs my bicep and that’s it. It’s over. I’m dead. No more rock concerts, no more sunrises, no more watching your boy grow up and be the man you probably didn’t want, but who amazes me anyway. Do you like who we’ve all become? That’s what I’m gonna ask you when I see you. Are you ashamed of us all?

The hand on my arm drags me off to the side into a smaller corridor, so thin we’re pressed chest to chest. When I look up at who my saviour (captor?) is, my breath catches in my throat and I get such bad whiplash that I have to slump against the wall behind me. I’m so transfixed by the man in front of me that I don’t even notice the vampires running past, completely ignoring that I’m there.

“Nico?” I whisper in amazement. 

“Hello Sunshine,” he says, casually, like we’ve just bumped into each other one the way to buy a pack of 20 Marlboro Light at the corner shop, and  _ not  _ like he’s just saved me from a horde of vampires in a questionable Shoreditch warehouse nearly 20 years since the last time we last spoke.

He’s got hold of my hand and when I look down I see it’s the one holding my wand. It makes sense now, why the vamps are ignoring us. It’s a nasty trick, using another mage’s magic, and only Nico and Ebb were ever powerful enough to do it. I always hated it, and he knew I did, which inevitably meant he’d just do it  _ more. _

“What the-”

But I don’t get a chance to finish my sentence because the next thing I know he’s pulling me down the corridor. It’s too dark for me to really see anything, so I may still die today, but honestly I’m still so hung up on the fact that Nicodemus Petty is holding my hand and calling me Sunshine and is even  _ here _ . I’ve barely even thought of him since Baz brought him up last year (and, God, doesn’t that feel like it was a lifetime ago). And yet he’s pulling me down the corridor to what I’m hoping is safety.

There’s a loud click, and suddenly light breaks open the darkness, and I’m pulled through an emergency exit door out to the side of the warehouse. It’s a grey, mizzley morning, probably only 7 o’clock, but after the darkness from inside the building, it still burns my eyes. Now we’re safe, I tug my hand out of Nico’s icy grip, and take two big steps away from him.

“That’s not a very nice way to treat the man who just saved your life,” he teases, turning to me. I don’t miss the way his eyes roam my body, but I  _ do  _ choose to ignore it.

“‘Man’ is relative, I would say,” I counter, crossing my arms. 

He grins and it’s awful. It shows the gaps in his teeth where his fangs were, the lines by his eyes which just remind me how old we’ve both grown, and he looks just like Ebb when he does. I don’t like to think of Ebb because when I do I think about how I should’ve stayed with her, especially after Natasha died. We’d both lost the people we loved the most, and then I let us loose each other, too. 

“Now, now, Sunshine. There’s no reason to get bitchy.”

I huff and look away. This almost feels like it used to when we were kids. He would tease, pull my hair, flirt like crazy, make me fall in love with him over and over again in a million new ways. I hated being so dramatic back then, and I still hate it now.

“How about you buy me a cuppa and I’ll forget the animosity.” I look back at him and he’s got his eyebrows raised in an expectant expression, and I should spell him six ways from Sunday. I should forgo the magic altogether and just bloody deck him. I should stake him through the heart like he did to me all those years ago.

We find a café a fifteen minute walk away.

We go inside and it’s empty save from the woman behind the counter in a grease stained apron. She looks up from the newspaper she’s reading when we enter, and eyes at us both suspiciously. We do both look terrible. Nico is wearing the same outfit he was the day he left, and it's torn and dirtied now. We’re both wearing all black, the only thing darker being the rings under our eyes. We’re both old now, with a sort of homeless vibe to us. She probably thinks were here for a post-score fry-up.

“Two teas, please,” I say as Nico and I take a seat in the far corner of the café, by the window. She nods and gets to work on making them. 

I watch Nico as he sits down across from me. He takes a paper napkin from the dispenser on the table and starts to fold it. His face is older, but his mannerisms are still those of a boy -  _ the  _ boy I once knew and loved. I loved him so much it set my soul on fire most days, and I didn’t know which way was up half the time.

“Why were you there?” I finally say after a long, silent pause.

He doesn’t look up from where he’s playing with the napkin as he answers, “I heard someone from the Coven was laying a trap there.” He shrugs. “I just had a feeling it would be you.”

I frown. “This mission was confidential, how did you know about it?”

He laughs at me and lifts his head, even as he stays hunched over the table. “‘This mission was confidential’,” he mocks. “God, listen at you. You’re a proper little lapdog for the Coven now, aren’t you.” He shakes his head and looks back at the paper towel.

I straighten my spine, prickling at the accusation. “Rather a lapdog than a mutt,” I counter, and he doesn’t even flinch. “Besides, you didn’t answer my question.”

“Here,” he says, ignoring me again, handing me the loppy crane he’d made out of the napkin. When I don’t take it, he places it on the table in front of me. “Don’t tell me you’ve lost your sense of humour, Fi.” 

I open my mouth to retort but the waitress comes over with our teas and a little jug of milk. “That’s £4 at the till when you’re ready,” she says as she places it on the table. We say thank you and she leaves.

I watch her walk away and when I turn back to Nico he’s spooning sugar into his cup. I count four, and it’s a little bit nostalgic. He always did have a terrible sweet tooth. I shake my head minutely to snap myself out of that line of thinking. This is  _ not  _ a trip down memory lane. I pour a little milk into my own tea to distract myself. 

“How’s your nephew?” Nico asks out of the blue as I take a sip of my tea.

I nearly choke on it. 

I look at him and he’s staring back at me. I’m reminded just how dangerous Nico can be - he’s powerful, smart, and  _ cruel _ . I knew telling Baz anything was a bad idea but he’s so wilful there was no stopping him, not when Nat was on the line. But I’d warned him that he could learn nothing from Nicodemus Petty, and given that he’s at uni in the city and all but shacked up with Simon Snow, I’m hoping he listened. 

“I don’t see how that’s any concern of yours,” my voice is pure venom as I reply.

He shrugs and stirs his tea holding the spoon by his thumb and forefinger. “He’s one of my kind.”

“ _ You  _ got power hungry and stupid and now you live in the gutter,” I counter. “Baz is nothing like you.”

Nico’s  _ what, who me?  _ look spreads into another awful grin. “I’ve missed your fire, Sunshine.” He chuckles and takes a sip of his tea. “I have no interest in the young Pitch, don’t worry. He’s so repressed I wouldn’t even know what to do with him.”

“Baz is fine. He’s happy.” I protest, because he is. I may not approve entirely of the mage’s protégé of all the men in the world, but Snow does make him happy, there’s no denying it.

“It’s only a matter of time before he has to stop denying who he is, Fiona.” Nico shrugs. “But, it’s none of my business.”

“You’re right, it’s not.” I’m sat bolt upright and I haven’t even touched my tea. I’m tense. I haven’t like anything he’s said to me so far, especially since most of it has been some shade of true. “You never answered my question.”

“I have my sources. The Coven isn’t as confidential as you might like to hope.” There’s a glint in his eyes as he speaks that I don’t trust. He grins at me again and I wish he wouldn’t. I used to love his smile. It would brighten my day. Now it makes me feel sick to my stomach. He slaps his legs and stands up. “Don’t go wandering into anymore vampire dens, ey, Fi? I might not be there to save you next time.”

He goes to leave, just like that. He’s almost at the door when I call after him. “I’m sorry,” I say when he turns around. “About Ebb, I’m really sorry.”

He softens, and for the first time I almost see the Nicodemus that I once loved. He nods, turns to leave, then hesitates. “You be careful, alright Fiona? These are dangerous times. It would be a shame if you got hurt.” And then he’s gone, not for the first time, off back out of my life as swiftly as he came back in. At least this time there's not a trail of heartbreak and destruction left in his wake.

I sit back in my chair and sip my tea, trying not to think how much that last sentence sounded like a warning.

**Author's Note:**

> i am in love with fiona pitch and if she doesn't feature in awtwb ima riot. 
> 
> also, you cannot convince me that her influence is not the source of baz's dramatics. you just can't.
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! i thrive on vindication.
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because school is so hard (or, i guess, uni now, lol), but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks for reading, have a wonderful existence.


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